The Hunter
by AwesomeAutumnGirl
Summary: Seven happy years with my mom. Then my life turned into pure hell. She is presumed dead, because of a monster. I ran away from all the foster homes I'd been sent to, and lived in parks, and forests. Then there is hope on the horizon. But I have gotten so used to being disappointed, I'm not going to hope just yet... OC main character.
1. Lucky Me

I woke up in the forest. No surprise there...I had run away from my foster home. The only biological family member I knew was my mother, and she was dead. So I had to live in foster care. But after a while, you get tired of passed around like a classroom note. So here I am, next to a river, covered in sand, mud, grass and blood.

I remembered what it was like before I had been sent to foster care...

Flashback

"Hey Mellie." My mom said as I walked through the front door.

"Mommy, don't call me Mellie. Call me Mel, if you wanna nickname me." I smiled.

"Alright, alright. How was school, Mel?" she grinned.

"It was fine." I grinned back.

I looked nothing like my mother, I noticed. While she had silvery blonde hair with light brown eyes, and pale skin, I had black hair, deep green eyes, and olive skin. And our taste of clothes were different. She usually wore a black pencil skirt with a black blouse. I usually wore skinny blue jeans with a fitted t-shirt, or a tank top, never wearing anything close to a skirt, or dress.

"Hey, earth to Mel!" Mommy teased, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Um, huh?" I said stupidly.

My mom laughed, "I asked what you wanted for dinner?"

"Pizza!" I said as if this were obvious.

"Ok." she agreed.

All of a sudden, the door was flung open. A weird girl with chalky white skin, one hairy leg, one bronze leg, red eyes, and fangs stood there.

Mommy gasped. Her face was deathly pale as she stared at this.

"It can't be..an empousai.." she moaned. She turned to me and reached into her pocket, bringing out some papers. She handed them to me.

"Melanie, go. Go to the Foster Care place I always show you. Give them the papers." she instructed.

The empousai hissed, and began to walk forward.

"Melanie, run!" Mommy yelled.

"B-but mommy, will you be ok?" I asked, my eyes filled with tears.

Mommy turned to me, and I saw she was crying also. "Baby, just remember that I'll always love you, no matter what. Now, run!"

I gave her one last look, and ran. I felt like my whole world was coming to an end. I was a scared 7-year old girl, who could assume she now had no family.

I made it to the foster care. I wasn't sure what to expect; all the books and movies I'd seen showed foster cares as lonely places, without good food, and bullies.

I saw a lady at the desk. She had really light brown hair, coffee brown skin, and blue eyes. Surprisingly, she was nice to me. When she saw me come in, alone and crying, she immediately ran over to me.

"Honey, are you alright?" she asked with a British accent. I shook my head no.

"Why don't you tell me what happened." she said kindly.

"I went to my Mommy's house, from school. She was gonna make me pizza. But a weird lady came in." I paused. What was I supposed to say? A vampire monster ate my mom? "I only know that she had red eyes, and two knives. **(A/N: knives being the fangs) ** Mommy told me to run here. She gave me papers, and told me to come here. I didn't want to but she made me. So here I am."

The lady looked at me sadly. "I'm going to ask you some questions, ok sweetie? And could you give me those papers?" she asked.

I nodded, and handed her the papers. She looked them over and smiled.

"Ok, so your name is Melanie." she began.

"Yes, but don't call me Mellie. Call me Mel, if you wanna nickname me." I said.

"Ok. And you are 7?" she asked. I nodded.

"Do you have any other family? Grandmothers, Aunts or Uncles?"

"No. My Daddy went bye-bye, Mommy says. He's far far away, and we can't talk to him. And she never talks about Grandmothers, Aunts, or Uncles." I answered.

"Do you know your Daddy's name?" she asked. I shook my head no.

"Alright, follow me, I'll find you a room, until someone can claim you. Oh and my name is Miss Greene." she led me through a series of hallways. We came to a stop at room 177.

"This is your room...You're lucky, you won't have to share it, for now." she turned to me and smiled sympathetically.

She followed me into the room. It was very plain. The walls were gray, and the floor was white tile. There was one thin bed, with a thin white quilt, next to a small window without any curtains. There was a desk, with about 3 blank papers, and a pen. I saw 2 books on the ground, and a mirror on the wall. It looked very lonely and depressing to me.

"I can, ah, get more blankets, and pillows, and some of your personal things from your home." Miss Greene said. I nodded sadly, and went to sit on the bed. It creaked, and I could feel the metal springs in it. Miss Greene once again smiled sadly, and left the room.

End of flashback.

I shook myself out of my memories. It wouldn't help me to focus on the past.

Monsters started coming after me when I was ten. That was one of the reasons I left all of my foster homes. I didn't want any monsters to hurt them. One time, when I was in the park, having just run away, I came across an entire sleeping group of monsters. I was scared out of my mind, but i was smart enough to steal two knives from them. One was silver, the other was a bronze color. The bronze one seemed to work best on the monsters, but I kept the silver one around, as a back up weapon.

I took a deep breath, and stood up, my most recent cut hurting like crazy. It was located on my left leg, caused by a stupid snake lady carrying a large sword. It wasn't too deep, thankfully, but it did look like it was going to get infected, if i didn't treat it. But when you live in a forest, you don't exactly get to go to Walgreen's.

I pulled out my silver knife, and began to look for fish in the river I was next to. I had my sights on a large silver fish, when a figure stepped out of the trees, startling both the fish, and me.


	2. Rescued by a Bossy Goddess

"Hey!" I yelled. "You just scared away my food!"

The figure stepped into the light. It revealed itself to be a girl, dressed in black jeans and a silver parka, with a bow strapped to her back, along with silver arrows. She had spiky jet black hair, pale skin, and startling electric blue eyes.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

The girl laughed, to my surprise and annoyance. "The name's Thalia, hunter of Artemis."

"Um...Artemis?" I asked.

"Yeah, have you ever heard about the Greek Gods?" Thalia questioned.

"Not really. I do know quite about the monsters, though. " I answered.

"Well, I can teach you more about it at our camp. Follow me." Thalia instructed.

I held up my hands in a "hold up" kind of way. "Alright, lady, I don't know who you are, and you expect me to go to a camp with you? And speaking of camp, where on earth is it? And you said _our camp, _are there more of you?"

Once again, Thalia laughed. "Look, kiddo, I can answer all your questions at camp. I'm not dangerous. I'm like you, monsters come after me too. And I can assume you are hungry, we have food and drinks." Looking over my clothes, she added, "And, no offense, but you could use a change of clothes."

I considered what I should do. _"It couldn't hurt to go and figure out what is going on…" _I thought to myself. _"And they do have food…and drinks…and I do need more clothes…"_ I made up my mind. I would go with this Thalia Grace, hunter of Artemis.

"Alright, I'll come." I decided.

"Great. Follow me." Thalia led me through the trees.

"By the way, what's your name, kiddo?" she said as we walked through the trees.

"Melanie." I said curtly, still not trusting Thalia. I guess that's the side effect of being on your own for so long.

"Cool. How old are you, Mellie?"

Hearing the nickname Mellie brought on a surge of painful memories, which I immediately buried.

"Don't call me Mellie." I said angrily.

"Kay. How about Mel? Melanie is a great name an all, but it needs a nickname." Thalia asked.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes.

"Alright then, Mel, how old are you?"

"I'm 14. How old are you?"

"16." She answered as if she was sharing an inside joke.

"Okay…"I said, drawing out the O.

Suddenly the trees parted, and I found myself standing in a grassy clearing, with a stream bubbling nearby. There were silver tents set up everywhere, with burnt leaves and twigs in the center of the clearing. The weirdest part of it though…There were no guys. Only girls all dressed the same. They all wore silver parkas, and dark jeans.

"Thalia!" a girl called.

"Hey, Phoebe." Thalia greeted the girl.

"Who's this?" Phoebe questioned Thalia.

"Yeah, hi, you don't have to ask Thalia what my name is, I can tell you myself." I snapped.

Phoebe looked at me and grinned. "I like your attitude! Ok, what's your name?"

"Melanie." I answered, my annoyance and mistrust slowly fading away.

"But don't call her Mellie. Call her Mel." Thalia added.

"Ok then. Should we take Mel to Lady Artemis?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, but I think I'll take her, no offense." Thalia agreed.

"That's cool. Hey, do we know who her godly parent is?"

"Hold up!" I interrupted loudly. A bunch of the other girls stared at me.

"What's wrong, Mel?" Thalia and Phoebe asked.

"Oh, where to begin! Why don't I begin with the fact that you just said _godly parent? _What the heck does that mean? My Mom's dead! I have no family!" I said, my annoyance returning.

Thalia sighed and sat down on a rock. "Alright, I guess I might as well explain to you now. Phoebe, you can go do whatever it is you were doing."

Phoebe nodded and jogged off to do who-knows-what.

"Ok, Melanie, there are Greek myths. Like, an emposai, Minotaur's, and the gorgons. Those are the monsters. But there are also gods. Like, Artemis, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and so on. Anyway, the gods, and monsters, basically all the Greek myths are real. And the Gods kinda, well, got together with some mortals, making kids, like you and I…But since one of our parents is a god, part of us is also godly. But, your mom is dead, so your dad is probably your godly parent. Anyway, you're a demigod, and Artemis is hopefully going to help us find out whom." Thalia explained.

I struggled to figure out what was just explained to me. I was half-god? I didn't exactly feel very godly, being dirty, sweaty, and bloody…But I might as well figure out who this Godly leader Artemis is.

"Alright, take me to Artemis." I sighed.

Thalia grinned at me. "You do better than most demigods upon finding out who they are. Alright, follow me."

She and I both walked towards a 12 year old girl with auburn hair and silver eyes.

"My Lady Artemis," Thalia bowed to this little girl.

"Stand, my lieutenant, "Artemis said.

"_You're _Artemis?" I asked disbelievingly.

Artemis turned to me and smiled. She pressed her hands together, and the next thing I knew, she looked like she was in her early twenties, still wearing navy blue jeans, hiking boots, and a silver parka. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore no makeup. She had a bow and a sling of silver arrows strapped to her back, like most of the other girls here.

"I'll take that as a yes…" I muttered.

Artemis stared into my eyes, and I felt like she was X-raying me, pulling out memories, experiences, my name…pretty much my whole life story. I saw a look of shock and surprise come over her face. She quicly hid it, and smiled at me nervously.

I was proven right.

"You are Melanie Kinsley, correct?" she stated.

"Well, you did just find out everything about me, so, you tell me." I said sarcastically. Thalia stared at me in shock, but Artemis just smiled at her.

"Ok, Melanie. I am Artemis, maiden goddess of the moon, and the hunt. I have _no children_," she said firmly, as if to erase any shadow of a doubt I might have. "I have only my handmaidens, all female. I know you have been through tragedy and loss, and that you have been hunted by monsters, time and time again. Tell me, have you ever met your father?" she quickly asked.

"No." I said quietly. This woman knew everything about me, and being so secretive for so long, having someone know everything about me made me feel weak, and vulnerable.

"Ah. Then _he_ is your godly parent. How would you feel if I could find out whom?" Artemis asked.

"I honestly don't really care. He didn't care enough to be bothered to help me or my mom, so why should I care about him?" I answered truthfully.

"That is a good reason. But we do need to find out who he is, for us to determine what abilities you possess, ok?" Artemis said _"ok?" _as a question, but she also spoke with a commanding tone. I got the feeling she hadn't been defied in a while, and wasn't about to start now.

"Fine. How can we find that out?" I asked.

Artemis smiled, and clapped her hands.

For a second, all I saw was smoky silver stuff. Then the smoke cleared, and I was standing in a completely different place.

It was a marble room, Greek style, with pillars supporting the ceiling. There were white stone thrones everywhere, all with different designs. I noticed that there were three chairs in the front of the room, decorated with lightning bolts, fish and water designs, and bones.

The weirdest thing…everything was giant. I felt like a bug, staring up at all these thrones.

"Thal-" I turned to ask Thalia where we were, but Thalia wasn't there. Reluctantly, I turned to Artemis to ask where we were, but she wasn't next to me. She was talking to the three men in the thrones at the head of the room.

She walked back to me, her face expressionless.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

"Olympus, place of the Gods." She answered.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but caught sight of what I was wearing. It was a frilly pink shirt, with a knee length skirt, with pink sneakers. I saw a gorgeous lady on a throne covered in hearts wink at me and wave.

I turned to Artemis with a horrified expression.

"Can you fix this?" I said, mortified.

Artemis saw the outfit and smirked. She snapped her fingers, and I was suddenly dressed in plain blue jeans, black hiking boots, with a silver parka over a black tank top. I looked like the girls back at Artemis's camp.

I turned to the pretty lady with the throne covered in hearts. She was looking at me with a disapproving expression as she examined my new outfit. I saw a few of the other giant gods snickering at her obvious disapproval.

"You know, it might be a bit odd for this mortal to have to stare at us when we are in giant form…" A man in a glowing gold throne decorated with suns spoke.

Some of the other gods nodded. Everyone shrunk down to normal human size, still in their (now normal size) thrones.

"Thank you." I told the glowing guy.

"No prob. I'm Apollo, by the way. Hold up!" Apollo held up his hands.

"I am Apollo

Helped this clueless little girl

I am so awesome"

Everyone in the room groaned, except for Apollo, who looked proud of himself.

"Excuse me, _clueless little girl?_" I demanded.

"Well yeah, you have no idea what's going on." Apollo said carelessly, glancing at Artemis. Artemis narrowed her eyes, and gave him a look that said "_Shut up" _

I grabbed at my belt, and found, to my surprise, that my bronze and silver dagger were there. I pulled out the silver one, and began to walk towards him, while he laughed with his eyebrows raised.

The guy in the throne covered in lightning bolts interrupted. "Artemis, what is the meaning of this?"

"Zeus, I have brought here Melanie Kinsley, an _unclaimed_ demigod. I need one of these gods to claim her. Her godly parent is her father, that's all we know." Artemis replied. It seemed like she was hiding something.

"Ok, somebody claim this kid." Zeus commanded.

About three minutes passed. Three minutes of everyone looking at each other, shaking their heads, and looking at me.

But then suddenly, the man in the chair with bones spoke. "She's mine." He said.

"Hades?" Artemis asked, shocked. The shock didn't look real though. It looked like this was all a scripted movie.

"Well, I wouldn't claim her if she wasn't." he replied dryly.

"Don't talk to me that way!"

"Don't ask stupid questions."

"Does it matter?!" The guy sitting to the right of Zeus said.

"Stay out of this Poseidon!" Hades snapped

"Stay out of this fish breath." Artemis said at the same time.

"Oh, you wanna call _me _fish breath? I am waay more powerful than you, _Moony._" Poseidon shot a blast of water at Artemis, who quickly dodged, and shot an arrow at him.

"Look at yourselves!" A woman with dark hair and gray eyes said, who was staring at the fight with disgust. "You're acting like children!"

"Athena is right." Zeus confirmed. "If Hades says Melanie is his daughter, then Melanie is his daughter. Poseidon, Artemis, stop this petty name calling fight immediately."

Poseidon, Artemis, and Hades all stopped, and eyed each other resentfully.

"Good. Now, Artemis, you are to take Melanie to Camp-Half-Blood, where she may be trained." Zeus said.

"But, Father, she can train with us!" Artemis argued.

"No, Artemis, I want her exposed to a different life before you make your offer."

"Wait, what offer?" I questioned, confused.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Apollo winked at me. I answered with a scowl, not forgetting his insulting haiku.

"Do I make myself clear, Artemis? She may have 3 months of Camp Half Blood. At the end of the 3 months, you and your hunters may visit, and make your offer. That is my final decision."

"But-fine." Artemis snapped her fingers, and once again I was enveloped in silvery smoke. But this time, when the smoke cleared, I was on a hill, next to a pine tree with a fuzzy golden thing hanging from it. A nearby sign read: Camp Half Blood.

"I'll leave you here. Go down the hill, you'll see some campers who'll take you where you need to go. I need to get to my hunters. See you in 3 months." Artemis said. Then she promptly disappeared into silver smoke.

I took a deep breath, and began to walk down the hill.

**So what did you think? Special special thanks to Elmlea, not just for this story, but for all my others! She has reviewed and checked out everything I've written on here, and I just think that's really awesome of her! So yeah, check her out, she's got really good stories! Oh, and you were were expecting it to be Luke, so I thought I'd make a small twist, do you think it was for the better? Anyone reading, please tell me thoughts!**


	3. Siblings

I began to head down the hill, my leg hurting more than ever, my stomach growling, and my mouth dry. I made it to the bottom of the hill, and stumbled to a boy with green eyes, and black hair, next to a blonde girl with gray eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance. I felt myself falling, and hands grabbing at my arms. Then I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was in a cot, with a cool cloth across my forehead. I was still dressed in my silver parka, jeans, tank top, and boots, but my leg was wrapped in bandages, and I was no longer covered in dirt and blood.

I moved my head to the left, and saw the blonde girl with gray eyes sitting next to me. She had a bag of golden stuff in her hand.

"You're awake." She stated.

"Yeah. Where am I? Who are you?" I rasped, my throat still feeling dry.

"You're at Camp Half Blood, a place for demigods. And I'm Annabeth. I was the girl who caught you when you collapsed. Who are you?" Annabeth introduced herself.

"I'm Melanie Kinsley, but call me Mel…um, there was a boy with black hair, and green eyes...who is he?" I struggled to focus.

"That's Percy, my boyfriend. He's talking to Chiron, and getting more nectar, for your leg." She explained. "Speaking of which, how'd you get that cut anyway?"

"A snake lady with a sword." I said quickly.

"Oh. Tell me about yourself, Mel. Where did you come from? Do you have any mortal family? If not, where have you been living?" Annabeth bombarded me with questions.

"I lived with my Mom until I was 7. That's when a…what did she call it, emposai, came. Mom told me to run to a foster care with papers she gave me. I went there, and Miss. Greene gave me a room. Whenever somebody adopted me, I stayed long enough to be well fed, and get some clothes. And the monsters came. I didn't want the monsters to get the people who adopted me; they were nice. So I would run away every time. But police would take me back. After about 7 or 8 times, I ran deep into the forest, on the sand by the river. I had to kill the snake lady on the way. That's how I got that cut on my leg. And no, my dad's a god, my mom's dead, and nobody ever mentioned anything about any other family." I summed up my life story.

"How did you survive? Did you have help?" Annabeth continued asking questions.

"I'm smart. I learned how to hunt and fight. I didn't have help, unless you count the brief time I stayed with foster families. Actually, I did have help, recently. Yesterday a girl named Thalia took me to this camp or something, and she introduced me to Artemis, some goddess lady or something, and Artemis took me to Olympus, and she gave me new clothes, and we found out who my Dad was. Not that I care, but she was pretty insistent. She kinda reminded me of a bossy 5 year old." I mused.

Annabeth chuckled, "That's probably accurate, but you shouldn't say stuff like that about the gods. You mentioned you know who your father is…Would you mind telling me?"

"Sure. He's Hades. He's like, the dead guy, god, or something like that." I frowned as I tried to remember.

Annabeth also frowned, and her brows wrinkled up for a second. But then she smiled, and her face was expressionless.

"Well, that's interesting. Do you feel like walking? I can introduce you to your brother, get you some food, and show you where you're staying…"

"Wait." I interrupted.

Annabeth paused, and allowed me to speak.

"I have a brother?"

"Yes…Would you like to meet him?" She asked.

"No. I would like to ignore the only family I have down here, of COURSE I want to meet him!" I answered sarcastically.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "If we didn't know that Hades was your Dad, I would assume that Athena was your mom."

"Right…I saw Athena at Olympus…what's she the Goddess of"

"Wisdom, and battle strength. She's my mom." Annabeth answered.

"Oh, cool." I said, slightly awkward.

"Yeah. So, you wanna walk? Or do you want me to bring him to you?"

"Um…I think I can walk." I said uncertainly, looking at my bandaged leg.

"Ok." Annabeth nodded and helped lift me out of bed.

She and I walked out of the infirmary in silence. When we made it outside, I gasped. There were kids in battle armor running around everywhere, and weapons were scattered around on the ground. Pegasus flew around in the sky, sometimes with riders. I saw other kids sword fighting, with various weapons. There was a climbing wall towering in the distance, but lava slithered down it. I saw smoke rising out of what looked like a forge.

"Yeah that's usually the reaction most new campers have," Annabeth noticed my gasp. "Ok, so I'm going to take you to the cabins, that's where Nico will probably be."

"Cabins?" I asked.

"Yeah. They're all organized and designed according to your godly parent. I designed some of them myself." Annabeth explained proudly.

"Oh, cool." I was genuinely impressed 2 minutes later. The cabins were awesome…One looked like a Barbie house, and smelled ghastly. Another was plain, with an owl over the door. I noticed 3 cabins at the very front. One was blue/green, and had shells on it. It had a sea trident over the door. I assumed it was Poseidon's cabin.

In the middle was a cabin that looked a bit like a bank. It was pure white marble, with a gold lightning bolt over the door.

To the left was a jet black cabin, with green torches beside the door. It had a skull over the door, leading me to believe that this was the Hades cabin.

"Ok, so that's your cabin…" Annabeth began to say. She was interrupted by the sudden entrance of her boyfriend, Percy.

"Hey, Wise Girl." He greeted Annabeth.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth replied.

"Oh look! New girl! You ok now, that was some black out." Percy grinned.

"Well, I'm walking around, what do you think?" I replied sarcastically.

"Good point. What's your name, new girl?" Percy asked.

"Melanie, but don't call me…" I began to say my usual introduction sentence, but was interrupted.

"Ok Mel! You know who your parent is? Oh sorry, did I interrupt you?"

"Um…no you didn't. And my Dad's Hades…we're going to see Nico." I said. I was surprised that I didn't have to tell him to call me Mel, like I did with most people.

"Oh, cool, Nico. He's a bit moody, but maybe he'll cheer up for you!"

"Ok, Mel…Just go into that black cabin…and then if you want you can explore camp." Annabeth pointed to my cabin.

I nodded, and began to walk. When I arrived, I was about to knock, but stopped myself. This was, after all, my cabin. So I merely opened the door, and walked in. Inside, a boy with messy black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin was sitting on the bed, watching a TV without much interest.

I was about to introduce myself, but I recognized the movie.

"Seriously, X-Men? I stared at the screen.

The boy looked at me, and merely shrugged. "I'm not really watching it…just bored."

"No, it's ok. I like X-men and all, but isn't it kinda an older movie? I mean…it came out in what… 2000?"

Once again, the boy shrugged.

"So um, are you Nico?" I asked.

"Yeah…Who are you?"

"I am Melanie Kinsley…but call me Mel. I'm your sister."

**_A/N what did you think? Please review! Also, constructive criticism, or ideas you might have, they're all welcome!_**


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